If you only know one photograph of the Beat Generation, you know this one. It’s the single most famous picture of Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. But who took it, when, where, and why? What are its secrets, and how can it be a crime scene? Whatever you think you know is almost certainly wrong, so to unravel its mysteries and find out where all the bodies are buried, follow in the footsteps of the world’s most dedicated…
George Bacovia (1881-1957) and Dimitrie Stelaru (1917-1971) represent two generations in the long line of Romanian Francophile Symbolists. Although both Bacovia and Stelaru took inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and the French Symbolists and were also touched by early-Expressionism, the two countrymen were miles apart in upbringing, cultural background, character, lifestyle and reception of their work. Bacovia, frail and suffering from depressions, held various official positions and led an uneventful life with his wife…
“… Joan Vollmer’s memory has long been framed within the narrative of the troubled five-year common-law marriage to the writer William S. Burroughs… her accidental death at her husband’s hand is unforgettable, the most enduring event of her short life. The shooting made her life a taboo topic for those who knew her well and a subject of fascination for those who did not. But the shooting tells us nothing about the 28 years of Joan’s life that preceded it… Joan Vollmer was extraordinary. The dean of her college knew it. Burroughs knew it. We knew it, too…”
Heinrich Nowak’s tale Die Sonnenseuche (The Sun Scourge) was first published in 1915 in the expressionist magazine Die weißen Blätter from Leipzig. Inspired by reports of an exceptional and life-threatening heatwave in the USA, the apocalyptic tale remained virtually unnoticed until it was re-published as a book in 1920…